Clinically decisive (dis)agreement in multidisciplinary team assessment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; a prospective, national, multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: Decisions regarding tumor staging, operability, resectability, and treatment strategy in patients with esophageal cancer are made at multidisciplinary team (MDT) conferences. We aimed to assess interobserver agreement from four national MDT conferences and whether this would have a clinical impact. METHODS: A total of 20 patients with esophageal cancer were included across all four upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancer centers. Fully anonymized patient data were distributed among the MDT conferences which decided on TNM category, resectability, operability, curability, and treatment strategy blinded to each other's decisions. The interobserver agreement was expressed as both the raw observer agreement and with Krippendorff's α values. Finally, a case-by-case evaluation was performed to determine if disagreement would have had a clinical impact. RESULTS: A total of 80 MDT evaluations were available for analysis. A moderate to near-perfect observer agreement of 79.2%, 55.8%, and 82.5% for TNM category was observed, respectively. Substantial agreement for resectability and moderate agreement for curability were found. However, an only fair agreement was observed for the operability category. The treatment strategies had a slight agreement which corresponded to disagreement having a clinical impact in 12 patients. CONCLUSIONS: Esophageal cancer MDT conferences had an acceptable interobserver agreement on resectability and TM categories; however, the operability assessment had a high level of disagreement. Consequently, the agreement on treatment strategy was reduced with a potential clinical impact. In future MDT conferences, emphasis should be on prioritizing the relevant information being readily available (operability, T & M categories) to minimize the risk of disagreement in the assessments and treatment strategies, and thus, delayed or suboptimal treatment.

Frequency of hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer in Danish colorectal cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) is an autosomal dominant cancer syndrome, characterised by familial aggregation of HNPCC related cancers, germline mutations in mismatch repair genes, and/or microsatellite instability (MSI) in tumour tissue. AIM: To estimate the frequency of HNPCC among non-selected Danish patients with colorectal cancer (CRC), and to evaluate the value of MSI analysis as a pre-screen test. METHODS: This was a prospective population based study on consecutive CRC patients. A family history of malignancy was obtained and suspected HNPCC cases were screened for hMLH1/hMSH2 mutations and subjected to MSI analysis. Patients with germline mutations and/or those with Amsterdam criteria I or II families were categorised as HNPCC patients. RESULTS: Among 1328 eligible CRC patients, 1200 (90.4%) completed a questionnaire. A total of 1.7% (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0-2.4) (20 cases) were categorised as HNPCC patients. Amsterdam criteria I or II were met in 18 cases (1.5%), and in another two cases (0.2%) pathogenic hMLH1/hMSH2 mutations were detected without fulfillment of the Amsterdam criteria I or II. Among 77 patients younger than 50 years of age, 11 cases (14.3%) were categorised as HNPCC. The Amsterdam criteria I or II were met in eight of 10 gene carriers (80%). The MSI-high phenotype was demonstrated in all 10 gene carriers. CONCLUSION: The frequency of HNPCC was approximately 1.7% among all CRC cases and 14.3% among patients younger than 50 years of age. MSI analysis is a reliable pre-screen test for hMLH1/hMSH2 mutations in families suspected of having HNPCC.

Patient accuracy of reporting on hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer-related malignancy in family members.

BACKGROUND: The cancer family history is important in identifying individuals with hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC). The accuracy of a suspected HNPCC family history reported by patients with colorectal cancer was evaluated. METHODS: This was a prospective population-based study including consecutive patients with colorectal cancer. A questionnaire covering the occurrence of malignancy among relatives was completed. RESULTS: A total of 1200 patients with colorectal cancer completed the questionnaire. Fulfilment of Amsterdam criteria I or II according to the patients' reports was rejected in three of 14 cases (false-positive rate 21 per cent). Furthermore, seven of 18 probands whose families met the Amsterdam criteria I or II after verification were identified by further exploration in families who, according to the probands, met weaker criteria (false-negative rate 39 per cent). CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that family studies on HNPCC are not reliable unless the diagnoses of family members are verified from official sources. If endoscopic screening is offered entirely on the basis of unverified information from patients with colorectal cancer, there is a risk that a large proportion of the families will not be offered relevant surveillance.

Role of chance in familial aggregation of colorectal cancer.

A prospective population-based study recorded family trees of 77 colorectal cancer patients younger than 50 years of age. Using mathematical modeling of population age-incidence data, we estimate that 1 (95% confidence limits 0 and 3) of these families is expected to meet the Amsterdam criteria I for HNPCC due to chance clustering of colorectal cancer.

Efficient mutation detection in mismatch repair genes using a combination of single-strand conformational polymorphism and heteroduplex analysis at a controlled temperature.

Single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis (SSCP) and heteroduplex analysis (HD) were tested as methods for mutation screening with respect to experimental variation, sensitivity, and specificity. Thirty-nine fluorescently labeled PCR products covering the two mismatch repair genes, hMLH1 and hMSH2, were tested in 15 patients for pattern changes, using SSCP and HD at two temperatures, in a total of 2340 runs. SSCP was most efficient in detecting base changes, whereas HD was the method of choice when detecting deletions. SSCP and HD at 20 degrees C were most effective (sensitivity 97%, specificity 49%), and SSCP and HD at 10 degrees C gave no additional information, except in one case where an exon had two base changes. Several mutations only showed a small pattern change in one of the two strands, most explicit at 20 degrees C. No correlation between the type of base change and the size or direction of the pattern changes could be found.